Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren, 1943)

Maya Deren's film, shot in 16mm with her husband Alexander Hammid, creates a dream-like flow of psychologically charged images. Originally silent, a music score was added later by composer Teiji Ito. Deren became known for both her films and her writings which became highly influential in creating the American avant garde film movement.

At Land (Maya Deren, 1944)

Maya Deren conceived and starred in this silent 16mm exploration of a woman's shifting identity through mysterious changes of time and space. Like her first film Meshes of the Afternoon it creates an association of seemingly unrelated images and sudden changes of scene experienced in dreams.

Cabinet of Jan Swankmajer (Brothers Quay, 1984)

Steven and Timothy Quay, twin brothers known as the Brothers Quay, created this surreal animated homage to the Czech filmmaker Jan Swankmajer using elaborate sets and stop motion puppets. The film is one of their several collaborations with the Polish composer Lech Jankowski whose music was central to the construction of the scenes.

Nocturna Artificialia (Brothers Quay, 1979)

The first film of the Brothers Quay depicts a creaky animated puppet taking a trolley at night to explore a mysterious delapidated world. Though less detailed than their later work, the film evokes a dark sense of place and time unknown, but reminiscent of Kafka.

Toys of the Philosopher (William Kersten, 2023)

Odd toys that seem to be alive are lost in a desolate world until they find a carnival which allows them to enter a parallel universe. Partly inspired by the toy-like forms of the surrealist painters Tanguy and De Chirico, the film uses stop motion animation to suggest the erratic, seemingly purposeless behavior of childish but strangely altered objects.

Archangel (Guy Maddin, 1990)

Canadian director Guy Maddin, known for his unusual and sometimes surreal films, recreates an early sound-era movie style with an often nonsensical story about an amnesiac soldier and his bizarre experiences in the 1919 Russian arctic village of Archangel. Made on deliberately artificial-looking sets and with highly stylized acting, the weirdly comedic film shot in the 90s presents itself as a strange relic from an antiquated but vivid era of early cinema.